PhD
Program Leader and Convenor Visual Communication, Lecturer
Contact details for Dr Oliver Vodeb
Oliver Vodeb is a sociologist of communication and design, researcher, theorist, practitioner and educator.
Oliver Vodeb is interested in how critical social theory can illuminate the complex processes of production, distribution and reception of public (visual) communication in order to generate public (visual) communication as a responsible social, political, economic and cultural practice. He is particularly interested in relations between concepts of response-ability and communication effectiveness, and the social construction of design and other forms of pubic communication as profession, practice and praxis within academia, the market environments and non-institutionalised communities.
As communication practitioner, his work focuses on the public sphere where he uses art, visual communication and photography to design social futures. He believes that design and communication practices need to change fundamentally if they want to become relevant in times of radical uncertainty. His research approach is inter/extra disciplinary and he understands theory and practice as interrelated.
Oliver has lectured internationally at several Universities and conferences. Before coming to QCA he taught "Theories and practices of media and communication" at the Design department at the Academy of Fine Arts, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.
He is the author of a book Socially responsive communication (2008) and he co-edited and co-curated the book Demonstrating Relevance: Response - Ability, Theory, practice and imagination of Socially Responsive communication (2010). He frequently writes on blogs and gives commentary in Slovene and international media.
In 2006 Oliver co-founded Poper Studio for public communication, which broke new grounds with its critical interdisciplinary theoretically informed conceptual approach and the consistent use of socially responsive communication. Among others Oliver directed communication projects for City Museum of Ljubljana, Academy of Sciences and Arts of Slovenia, a self initiated national campaign that helped resolve the biggest human rights violation in Slovenia and a presidential campaign. He is currently working with his colleagues on a EU funded project that attempts to develop the first peer-to-peer production based open source fashion brand.
Oliver conceptualised and founded Memefest, an international festival of radical communication in 2001 and is facilitator, curator, editor and main organiser of the project since its start. Memefest is a festival and networked community of critical communicators interested in designing social change through public communication. It has participants from more than sixty countries. As an intermediary institution and network it connects academia, professionals, activists, artists, educators, students, theory and practice. Memefest is designed as a tactical educational, communication and research tool.